A modified and inspired version of
maxgiao's nice deck
Elysian Ixtol Imitators Eternal Gauntlet #2
The Main reason I created my own version was that I don't have four copies of
Rost, the Walking Glacier (and I didn't feel like crafting three of them), which is probably the biggest difference between maxgiao's and my version, but there are a few other changes as well.
When I searched for a decent replacement for Rost I found
Thundrus & Snooze. On its own not bad but the stun on summon is just a huge downside, so to make it work I included
Infinite Hourglass and yes the moment I chose this I already knew this:
"you add four copies of a card just to make 3 other cards (only 3 Thundrus are in my deck) work? are you stupid?", but it turned out to work very well since Infinite Hourglass serves multiple purposes:
1. Prevent Thundrus from being stunned which makes it a bomb when played while you have Infinite Hourglass up.
2. Endurance is pretty helpful, sometimes you are in a situation where you could attack but you have to worry about having blockers, no more, you can be much more aggressive with your attacks.
3. It can bait out attachment killer cards so you can play your
Permafrost safely which saved me at least two games so far.
Other changes:
1. Replaced
Maveloft Huntress. As 2-cost she was great but since she got nerfed to 3 power she's much worse, we all know these gauntlet games where you get stuck on 2 power then having a 3-cost plunder in hand you can't play is really frustrating. I added
Terrazon Echo instead which doesn't pack the killer potential of the Huntress but it's a 2-cost plunder and working very well with the snowballs, other cheap spells in the deck as well as with Treasure Troves you create. Also, with a berserk attack it gets the bonus from spells you have cast again on its second attack, which is pretty strong now and then.
2. Since I had to make room for 4
Infinite Hourglass I removed 1
Desert Alchemist, 1
Turn to Seed (similar to Huntress, since it got nerfed from being a 3-cost to a 4-cost it's much worse and I really feel like 3 copies are enough) and the 2
Sky Serpent because being playable on turn two may or may not happen, drawing them with only 2 being in the deck may or may not happen which was just too inconsistent for me.
The rest of the deck is the same as maxgiao's version. I thought a few times about changes to the market but all the cards there are chosen well, handy and serve a clear purpose.
Cheers, and have fun in case you try the deck.
This other suggestion probably isn't that great, but if you want to go all-in on the Thundrus + Hourglass synergy then Guardian of Spring and Grand Suppressor might be worth looking into (though Suppressor doesn't play nicely with Imitator).
I like the idea of Guardian of Spring but I wanted to maintain the original idea of the deck and not go all-in on Hourglass, could be an idea for another deck though.
Also Imitator almost always goes on Ixtol, in some scenarios using it on the merchant or Wump is fine too.
I'm still impressed on how much damage Terrazon Echo can do :)
Same with your other points. I have separate Elysian Suppressor and Imitator decks. Just wanted to mention the synergies since I've never considered combining them before. And yep, Terrazon is super underrated. It's really fun to slot into a TJP Infect deck alongside Alessi, Combrei Archmage/Hojan, Crownbreaker/Rilgon's Disciple and burst out 20 or so damage by T3 :)